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Hello! I'm back in action. Actually, my bed, dresser, and computer are the only things 'up' right now as I've just moved into a smaller house and have to figure out where I'm going to put all my stuff (the books are the biggest problem). With that said, it doesn't look like I missed to much action.

I'll answer Umi's questions as soon as I get a moment to ponder them (I'm thinking 5th level daily and possible new character). Nearly all my friends and family have their Birthday's in our around October (including my twin and I), so it will be one long (expensive) party for me...

Thank you all for the questions and clarification about the possible extra character. My first thought was that one character is enough, thank you. My second is, hmmm, a good defenders is always nice to have around, and we've been without one for so long (with the exception of a few teases). I know that swordsmen (which are my favorite flavor of defender) are really prejudiced against in the empire, but there you go. It is definitely food for thought. I'll see (if we are allowed to) what everybody else fields and then decide if my input is needed.

Though a counter point is that a party without a healer type leader is somewhat short lived too, so perhaps a change would be unwise unless narrative forced it or somebody else deeply desired to fill those shoes.

Originally Posted by Malk0lm

If you wish it I will take on Polon.

I'll also begin working on another character, but it will be very slow going since I have recently found a coworker who has many XBOX games that he is willing to let me borrow.

Ow, try the Mass Effect series, despite the ending that everybody was disappointed with (except me it seems), it's really a great series. Especially for RP type players. Skyrim and the Fall Out series are both a bit more true sandboxes RPGs (which you never get out of), while I felt that Mass Effect tripped a good balance action, and response to the character of your character. Your only limited in that you have to be Commander Shepard the captain (?) of the Frigate Normandy, which now that I think on it is a pretty big limitation. But within those bounds a lot of fun can be had.

Acqua Alta - Player of the human priestess Yrisz Vulysenyat.

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
~Mother Teresa

OOC Post #60 for Acqua Alta Finale

This post complements the sixtieth Acqua Alta Finale main post. Players' posts in either thread are due by 11 pm, Saturday, October 6th. The next OOC main post will appear by 11 am, Monday, October 8th.

Malk0lm will handle Polon after this round. It's time to consider round 18 actions, with an eye to turn order and positioning.

My intention is to write something in the narrative thread, but I will defer it to later in the current posting period.

I wouldn't say swordsmen have it particularly bad in the campaign setting. What you might be remembering is that magic-users do tend to have more prestige in Aucothia than they normally do, elsewhere. The Bright Kingdom setting of my chat game is the exception that makes it difficult to draw a comparison, though. Speaking of the chat game, the victors of the Autumn Knight adventure managed to do quite well without a healer, so I wouldn't be too concerned on that score.

Yrisz has used a sun rod and 2 healing potions.
Yrisz has spent 1 Action Point (none remaining).
Yrisz has cast Channel Divinity, Cure Light Wounds (daily), and Exacting Utterance.
Yrisz has used two Healing Words and her Second Wind.
Yrisz is using non-lethal attacks.
Yrisz is #4's quarry.
Yrisz has spent 5 healing surges.
Yrisz has taken 13 points of damage.

Zephyr has used his length of rope and a sun rod.
Zephyr has expended Arcane Prodigy, Escalating Violence, Flame Spiral, Life Thane Rage (daily), and Savage Growl.
Zephyr is using non-lethal attacks.
Zephyr has spent 1 action point (none remaining).Zephyr has spent 9 healing surges.
Zephyr has taken 13 points of damage.

It's time to consider round 18 actions, with an eye to turn order and positioning.

The turn order thing is going make it a bit tricky to coordinate actions, especially as we're still dealing with a split party for the moment, but I'm reluctant to simply delay Rogur & Zephyr's turns and give the enemies a free round. So, Rogur will take Noxias' advice and make his way to the other side. If he was aware that Zephyr was there in combat, he might try to Run and then charge, but since he's not, it'll be a normal Double move, stopping at the door as he sees what's going on. Zephyr will continue to press his assault against #2.

Sx6, Sx4. Rogur is now just north of the door, hiding from #2. Free: Reload slingMinor: Stow sword

* Rogur - Acrobatics - Cross narrow bridge #1 *

* Rogur - Acrobatics - Cross narrow bridge #2 *

Zephyr, Round EighteenStandard: Melee Basic against #2. Please note that the roll does not include any modifiers from Escalating Violence. If #2 does damage to Zephyr prior to this attack, please adjust attack & damage rolls accordingly.

You know, if we had thought about giving Rogur a rope, we would be a lot happier on the other side of this. I don't think Yrisz has enough rope left to be helpful for that or if somebody falls over.

Umi, according to the rules you can move through an allies square, what's your thought about it if the allies square happens to consist of a balance beam, as is currently the case with much of the party? I'm just thinking about how we might have to jog initiative next round to make everybody end up where they wish if they can't pass through other squares...

As for Yrisz, she's in for another double move:

Move: S, S, S, S
Standard: S, S (no acrobatics check, hopefully)

As for running parties without healers, it can be done, as I've seen it in two of the games I've played in. The only two negative points I've found is that it seems easier to make the mistake that the party can't recover from (i.e. full party wipes) and the party tends to be able to absorb less damage due to the lack of true healing added to their healing surge values. But I've seen really dangerous all striker parties (that were ultra fast at combat resolving), but the first time the players made a serious mis-calculation the whole party was gone. These where high level tournament players I'm speaking about here, so my data might not apply as well to more casual games.

I played in a Paladin, Paladin, Rogue party which was a holy terror, and between what healing the paladins had we were able to take monstrous amounts of damage without loosing party members. Usually we could make one or two major mistakes in a level+2 encounters and come up ok. But as the Paladin's healing powers are mostly daily powers so two encounters with major errs made usually went very badly, and would force us to abort the remaining fights if possible. Again this was high level play with high level players (except me), though it was a more story driven casual game then the earlier one that I referenced.

Ok, I'll shut it with the tech talk, as our party is working so far, so no worries.

Acqua Alta - Player of the human priestess Yrisz Vulysenyat.

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
~Mother Teresa

OOC Post #61 for Acqua Alta Finale

This post complements the sixty-first Acqua Alta Finale main post. Players' posts in either thread are due by 11 pm, Tuesday, October 9th. The next OOC main post will appear by 11 pm, Thursday, October 11th.

Good! On to Round 19.

Originally Posted by Ithelryn

. . .

Umi, according to the rules you can move through an allies square, what's your thought about it if the allies square happens to consist of a balance beam, as is currently the case with much of the party? I'm just thinking about how we might have to jog initiative next round to make everybody end up where they wish if they can't pass through other squares...

. . .

The first round when entering a narrow space, it's not an issue. I just pretend that people furthest along came in first. When on a narrow space, yes, you cannot pass through allies. Therefore, the fact that Konstansz is prone in front of Yrisz will be an issue starting next round.

Noxias has spent 1 Action Point (none remaining).
Noxias has cast Chill Strike, Fireburst (daily), Flaming Sphere (daily), and Shield.Noxias has used Fey Step, and Second Wind.
Noxias is bloodied.
Noxias has spent 4 healing surges.
Noxias has taken 27 points of damage.
Polon is at -2 to attacks.
Polon has taken 9 points of damage.

Yrisz has used a sun rod and 2 healing potions.
Yrisz has spent 1 Action Point (none remaining).
Yrisz has cast Channel Divinity, Cure Light Wounds (daily), and Exacting Utterance.
Yrisz has used two Healing Words and her Second Wind.
Yrisz is using non-lethal attacks.
Yrisz is #4's quarry.
Yrisz has spent 5 healing surges.
Yrisz has taken 13 points of damage.

Zephyr has used his length of rope and a sun rod.
Zephyr has expended Arcane Prodigy, Escalating Violence, Flame Spiral, Life Thane Rage (daily), and Savage Growl.
Zephyr is using non-lethal attacks.
Zephyr has spent 1 action point (none remaining).Zephyr has spent 9 healing surges.
Zephyr has taken 13 points of damage.

Rogur and Zephyr will exchange pleasantries and a quick situation report, and then proceed back across the rickety bridge to safety. I suggest we use the two long coracles to make an escape, so he'll tell everybody to move back to the room they just left. Rogur will help everybody across and bring up the rear, since he is guaranteed to make the acrobatics check to cross the "bridge". If anybody falls in, just swim for the boats and we'll meet them down there as quickly as we can.

Pursuant to Ithelryn's suggestion, Rogur will retrieve his rope and give an end to Zephyr. Once he gets to the other side, he can help stabilize anybody who's left on the bridge (Which if my understanding is correct, would just be Polon). If it's not needed we can ignore the whole rope scheme.

Main Post #62

This is the sixty-second Acqua Alta Finale main post. Players' posts in either thread are due by 11 pm, Saturday, October 13th. The next OOC main post will appear by 11 am, Monday, October 15th.

As an additional play note for Polon, he will not willingly leave behind the remaining two scribes.

Konstansz and Noxias should resolve their differing intents.

Originally Posted by Ithelryn

Umi, Can Yrisz hold on to the door frame (so she doesn't fall over) and help Konstansz get up or even perhaps pull her in?

If it proves to much of an undertaking, she'll just return North (slowly) and stay near the door frame to 'help' people back into the North building or spot them when they fall.

Sorry I couldn't get to this in time. It's difficult to see how "helping someone back up" works when standing up is generally an automatic success. From a narrative point of view, it's probably fine.

As you can see, I do have everybody's information, but in light of the various questions that still need to be resolved, I'm going to hold off from finalizing this just a little longer; some of you may wish to adjust your actions. Also, Yrisz should take a second turn for the sake of my recordkeeping.

Noxias has spent 1 Action Point (none remaining).
Noxias has cast Chill Strike, Fireburst (daily), Flaming Sphere (daily), and Shield.Noxias has used Fey Step, and Second Wind.
Noxias is bloodied.
Noxias has spent 4 healing surges.
Noxias has taken 27 points of damage.
Polon has taken 9 points of damage.

Yrisz has used a sun rod and 2 healing potions.
Yrisz has spent 1 Action Point (none remaining).
Yrisz has cast Channel Divinity, Cure Light Wounds (daily), and Exacting Utterance.
Yrisz has used two Healing Words and her Second Wind.
Yrisz is using non-lethal attacks.
Yrisz is #4's quarry.
Yrisz has spent 5 healing surges.
Yrisz has taken 13 points of damage.

Zephyr has used his length of rope and a sun rod.
Zephyr has expended Arcane Prodigy, Escalating Violence, Flame Spiral, Life Thane Rage (daily), and Savage Growl.
Zephyr is using non-lethal attacks.
Zephyr has spent 1 action point (none remaining).Zephyr has spent 9 healing surges.
Zephyr has taken 13 points of damage.

Rogur had picked up two ropes at some point during his journey (I want to say it was while we were underground) and he did indeed lose one of them at some point--my records show he has one in his pack. Is there a place to secure a rope on the ramshackle walls/doors on either side of the bridge? And if we do so, will it provide a bonus to acrobatics checks to cross the bridge at full speed?

I apologize for forgetting about Gendoll and Ogam. It looks like we may have to ask the party to traipse across the bridge again. (Although from a narrative standpoint, this is pure comedy gold--a parody of the bridge of Khazad-Dum sequence in LOTR. )

Based on my reading of the story thread, we left the scribes back in the room where Zephyr regained consciousness with Polon. Will Zephyr and Polon be able to find their way back leading the rest of the party, or will we be at the mercy of perception checks again?

Anybody else want to chime in before I make a royal mess of things again?